March Of Acid Rain

August 3, 1988

DO YOU know where Mount Mitchell is? Just west of the Blue Ridge Parkway above Asheville, N.C. It's the highest point in North Carolina and, in fact, the highest mountain east of the Mississippi River.

It is now also the southernmost spot where acid rain and other pollutants have combined to kill a forest.

They say you can stand on Mount Mitchell and gaze along the ridge and see only the dead, skeletonlike remains of the red spruce forest that grew as recently as five years ago.

They say this is how it starts, among the spruce and conifers on the highest peaks. Then it works its way down to the hardwood trees below.

Slowly, gradually, relentlessly.

I wish I could think of something wise or prophetic to say, but I just feel sick at my stomach and scared.